ALBANY -- To some, it might seem cruel and unusual punishment: Play 30 new board games in a 40-hour stretch. Sleep is optional.

But if this sounds like your idea of a good time, you may be an undiscovered genius.

The board game lollapalooza, known as Mind Games 2011, was hosted by Mensa of Northeastern New York at the Best Western hotel this weekend. To become a member of Mensa, you must score in the top 2 percent in an Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, test. There are 57,000 members in 133 chapters worldwide, the most famous of whom is actress Geena Davis.

The folks here -- including teenagers dressed as wizards, a man in a black kilt and a fellow wearing a T-shirt apropos of nothing that read "I'd Kill for a Nobel Peace Prize" -- would not take kindly to being called nerdy. But quirky seemed to fit.

"It's a place where everyone will get your jokes," said Lisa Webster, of Phoenix, Ariz., a lawyer turned stay-at-home mom. She and her husband, Greg, a hotel chain manager, met in their 30s at a Mensa party. They weren't looking for romance, but they found they had common interests, not to mention comparable IQs in the upper 140 range. On an IQ scale, 120 is considered superior intelligence and 140 and above is near-genius or genius.

The couple, who left their 6-year-old daughter with her grandmother, stayed up to 2 a.m. Friday to stay on pace to finish the 30-game challenge. "We do whatever it takes," Greg Webster said. The two paused while playing their 26th consecutive game, Yamy, a card game blending elements of poker, rummy and Yahtzee.

"It's a lot of work, but it's fun work," said Charles Godfrey, of Yuma, Ariz., who teaches math and computer programming at a community college. He played from 11 a.m. until midnight Friday before exhaustion dispatched him to his room. Gamers who had pulled all-nighters called him a slacker.

Mind Games began with eight Mensans in New York City in 1980, according to Steve Weinreich, a founder. "This is our biggest ever," he said. Board game makers submitted 58 games for the event and each player got 30 selected randomly. The point of the marathon is for participants to rate the games, which have been on the market for less than a year. The top five will receive a Mensa seal of approval, a marketing tool coveted by game makers because it is spurs sales. The Mensa picks in the inaugural year of Mind Games -- Trivial Pursuit, Scattergories and Taboo -- all went on to become best-sellers.

The Albany event, which beat out a bid by Chicago, drew a record 300 participants from 43 states, Canada and Iceland.

"This is like a family game night writ large," said organizer John Hornberger, of Niskayuna, a National Grid utility inspector whose I.Q. tested at 154. While serving aboard a Navy nuclear submarine, he battled boredom by playing a lot of Trivial Pursuit.

"This is the highlight of my year," he said. He missed Saturday's opener of his 10-year-old son's Little League team, for which he's a manager. Board games are his passion. He owns 1,000 of them and hosts a monthly board game party for the local Mensa chapter, which has 200 members.

Hornberger had been playing for more than 30 hours, without sleeping. His secret? "Mountain Dew. A lot of Mountain Dew," he said.